Quasioptimal Spacecraft Attitude Control Constructed According to the Poinsot Concept

Abstract

The problem of attitude optimal control of a spacecraft as a solid body with the energy spent on maneuvering a spacecraft taken as a quadratic functional, and a fixed transition time, is investigated. The dynamic configuration of a spacecraft and boundary conditions on an attitude and angular velocity are arbitrary; the control function is not limited. According to the Poinsot concept from theoretical mechanics on the interpretation of the angular motion of a solid body around a fixed point and with the help of the Pontryagin maximum principle, the quasioptimal analytical solution of the problem is obtained, which is brought to the algorithm. Numerical examples are provided that confirm the closeness of the quasioptimal solution to the optimal solution of the problem.